There’s no question that the Hummingbird algorithm is only the beginning of change in search optimization, but smart content creators can be prepared to thrive in this — and any — environment that may come in the future.

In this article I am going to provide a short review of the recent events related to Authorship and Google’s In-Depth Articles feature, and then provide my analysis as to what this means for Author Rank and the birth of “In-Depth Article SEO.”

For years the search economy built by Google (and others) allowed many people to make decent money by simply executing on certain SEO tactics more efficiently than their competition — even if they didn’t necessarily know the business they were writing about.

This led to poor quality web sites that ranked highly for valuable search terms, with the need to deliver quality products or services coming in a distant second.

In my last Copyblogger article, I talked about how to build an agile content marketing team. This time around, I’m going to focus on how to determine the potential size and reach of your content marketing opportunity.

One way to accomplish this is to see if readers are already displaying a passion for your space. Are they looking for the type of content you’re producing, or want to produce? Are they sharing it? If you create the right content, is there evidence that they would be willing to do so?

Don’t leap to early conclusions just because you think your space is not sexy.